The present invention is directed to the upholstery art and more particularly to an improved apparatus and simplified method for upholstering a rigid chair shell or like article of furniture.
It is common practice in the furniture-making art, as evidenced, for example, by U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,697 to Koepke, to construct chairs, such as upholstered office chairs, using a rigid chair shell to which cushioning and covering are applied before a supporting leg structure is secured to the underside. Such chairs may be of relatively complex construction, and can be difficult and expensive to produce. The Koepke patent suggests a process for significantly simplifying the construction technique but still requires tools and a number of manual operations in tacking and releasing the edge portions of the upholstery cover during the forming operation and subsequent bonding of the cover to the shell.
Another prior art approach to securing a seat or upholstery cover to a rigid chair structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,273,178 to Baruth et al. wherein a C-shaped member is provided about the periphery of a seat structure and the terminal portions of the seat cover are inserted and held therein by means of a two-lobed welt in combination with a bonding material. While the Baruth et al. procedure may not require as many manual operations as the Koepke process, it does involve the problem of the insertion in the channel of the binding cement and welt and the composite arrangement extends outwardly from, and affects the external appearance of, the finished chair.
Another approach is represented by Neely U.S. Pat. No. 3,040,343. A flexible plastic strip is utilized as part of a trim connector, and is placed into a U-shaped channel, with a covering material extending thereabout. There is nothing retaining the plastic strip within the channel, and the strip and cover may be easily pried from the channel.
The present invention is directed to a process and apparatus which improved upon these prior practices for upholstering rigid seat or chair shells by simplifying and eliminating many of the necessary manual operations while producing a chair of improved durability and appearance.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a simplified and effective process for upholstering a rigid chair shell or other article of furniture.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved means for retaining the covering or fabric edge about the periphery of the shell or other portion of a like article.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and means for producing a chair of improved quality and appearance.
It is an additional object of this invention to facilitate the re-upholstering of a rigid chair shell or like article.